For a lot of queer people, even the sight of a football rolling toward them will bring up traumatic memories of being hurt or excluded by school bullies who treated the soccer field like their kingdom. But, like all sports, football really is for everyone, and that’s becoming more and more apparent as the likes of Josh Cavallo and Jake Daniels start to speak up as professional players who just happen to be gay.
It seemed off then that Ted Lasso, easily the world’s biggest show on football, would avoid queerness almost entirely in its first two seasons. At best, this was a major oversight, and at worse, this absence reinforced the notion that gays and sports just don’t mix.
Thankfully, season three took that criticism and ran it off the pitch with a huge focus on queer storytelling this year through characters like Colin and Keeley.
Related:
A Major “Ted Lasso” Character Just Came Out as Gay
It happened.
Whether you like how their stories were handled is another thing entirely, but what’s important here is that Ted Lasso is finally gay, like super gay all of a sudden, just like all sports and anything sports-related should be. I mean, have you seen a jockstrap?
While we’re still waiting to see Jamie Tartt in one, plenty of other gay things have happened in Ted Lasso, so grab a towel and join us in the locker room as we count down some of the best.